It was my second race of the year. Six months and only two races. For someone used to running several races a month for many years, it's been an unusual period to say the least. Because of an injury, I went weeks without running. It took it's toll on my cardio fitness. Now I often struggle to finish what used to be easy runs.

Running friends tell me how my fitness should come back quickly. I'd like to believe that's true. So far, it's not coming back quickly. So here we are. July fourth. It's the traditional mid-point of the year for me, even though the actual mid-point was a couple days earlier. Half a year has gone by, and I've missed many races on my traditional calendar.

In honor of The Grateful Dead's farewell concert in Chicago, the lyric about "a long strange trip" comes to mind as I consider my running for the last few months.

My progress has been slow. I can relate to the experiences of a lot of new runners as they take up the sport and start to get faster and try to run longer distances. Where I used to not think twice about running anywhere from 10-13 miles every weekend, I now am worried I won't be able to finish that distance.

The two races I have run so far this year are the Soldier Field 10 miler, and the Elmhurst 4 on the 4th, two races that hold strong personal connections for me. I entered both with the objective with finishing in an upright position.

The Elmhurst race is in the town where I live, and is organized by my running club. Most members of the club volunteer and do a wonderful job. My work schedule usually prevents me from volunteering, but I try to run the race anyway. And there is another bonus. I can literally roll out of bed, throw running clothes on and be there in five minutes. It is a runner's race, part of the CARA runner's choice circuit, and it draws a strong, fast field.

In the last few years, my goal was to run about 6:45/mile pace. In my current condition, however, I decided I would be very happy if I could get under 8:00/mile pace. So instead of being toward the front third of the pack of runners, I ran more toward the back half.

I felt like I was giving the same amount of effort as most other races over the last few years, but my legs weren't moving as quickly. And when I finished, I saw runners I usually finish in front of already lounging with bottles of water. But I did manage to run 7:58 pace.

While that is a modest accomplishment, at least I'm grateful to be over my injuries for now. Simply being able to run is much more important to me that How fast I am able to do it.

Halfway through the year, and I'm not setting the world on fire in races. But I'm able to participate in the sport I love. That's a lot to be thankful for.

As her mother and I were considering names for my firstborn more than a decade ago, we came accross the name "Lorna' and thought it was pretty unique. We liked it. Then I thought of several of my runner friends who had given their children names associated with the sport we love so much. I instantly thought of the incredible Kenyan runner, Lornah Kiplagat. I was convinced.

While Ms. Kiplagat spells her first name with an 'h' at the end, we opted for the five letter version ending with an 'a'. In fact, five letters ending with an 'a' became the theme for naming all four of our children, all girls.

In any case, I met Lornah Kiplagat many years ago when she ran the Chicago marathon. in 2000, she finished second with a time of 2:22:36. She has won several other major world marathons including Los Angeles, Rotterdam and Amsterdam. Her success was not easy, despite growing up in Kenya, where many of the world's best male marathoners are from. For women, however, running is not encouraged nearly to the extend it is for the men.

That is why she has used much of her winnings from her running career to work with young Kenyan girls. She has running camps, and is working to build a training center for girls in her native country. In short, she is a tremendous role model for girls and young women everywhere.

At 41, she is still in great shape. She probably can no longer match the world record time she still holds in the 5k (14:46), but she could get in the ballpark. We met up with her after she finished a long run on the lakefront. She graciously offered to spend a few minutes with my Lorna, who has run a few 5k races, in more than twice the time it takes the three time Olympian!

She was in Chicago this week for a women's active-wear industry expo, as she is looking for a distributer for her line of women's running and active-wear clothing. She has designed some really great clothing and it is selling well in Europe. I'm pretty sure it will do very well in this country once she finds a distributer. It's some really nice, original stuff.

I spoke to Lornah's husband Pieter about that while Lornah took some time to talk with Lorna about running, how she likes school, and bugs! Yes, my daughter has a fascination with bugs. Lornah has an amazing way of relating to young girls. I'm sure it comes from her genuine interest and warmth.

I've always been a fan of her running, but it's wonderful to see Lornah Kiplagat is an even better human being and role model. And I can only hope my Lorna absorbed as much inspiration as possible during her meeting with Lornah.